La Salle’s first-round Atlantic 10 loss to UMass gives its young team learning experience

HENRICO, Va. — After the La Salle women’s basketball program added 10 new faces over the summer, growth became a primary focus for the young roster.

So one can ascertain that Wednesday’s 54-49 loss to Massachusetts in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament was just another learning experience to add to the file.

“We knew this year was about growth, about maturing,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “We knew we were going to be taking our lumps.”

Neither team is recognizable from a year ago. While La Salle (8-22) returned only one member of last season’s starting rotation in all-conference guard Molly Masciantonio, UMass went from being the A-10′s regular season title winner to just a 5-26 record this season.

The No. 13-seeded Minutewomen jumped to an early lead, and while La Salle repeatedly clawed its way back, UMass always seemed to have an answer. But even in the loss, there was undoubtedly a bright spot in freshman guard Nicole Melious and her game-high 17-point performance.

» READ MORE: Meet the mascot whisperer behind Gritty who helped Jefferson University reimagine its mascot

Melious shouldered high expectations, even as a freshman, after scoring 3,140 points across three high school seasons at Susan E. Wagner High in New York. The Staten Island native is the all-time leading scorer in New York City — including boys and girls.

She earned a spot in La Salle’s starting rotation out of training camp. After finding her footing in the college game, Melious led the Explorers with 10.8 points per game, shooting 34.1% from three-point range.

“Right from day one, she was the kid on our team that our opponents were trying to guard because they looked at our roster, nobody else had played except for Molly, and they looked at [X, formerly Twitter] and knew that Nicole put up a million points in high school,” MacGillivray said. “And she got it from day one; people were trying to take her away. So she had to learn how to free herself up.”

In her first taste of postseason action, Melious was held without a point in the first quarter on Wednesday, as the entire team struggled scoring. But she caught fire toward the end of the first half and hit a pair of threes in the third quarter that gave La Salle its first lead of the game.

“I really improved defensively,” Melious said. “I feel like I really improved my quick release and shooting as time went on. And I feel like that’s my biggest takeaway.”

» READ MORE: La Salle honors legacy of Tom Gola in final game at arena: ‘This place will always have him’

This season, La Salle ranked first in the A-10 in three-point attempts per game (841) — which is a stinging reality when those shots aren’t falling. That was the story on Wednesday, as the Explorers missed their first eight attempts from behind the arc.

But with just over two minutes remaining in the second quarter and staring down a nine-point deficit, Masciantonio, Tiara Bolden, and Melious each connected on three-point buckets on three straight possessions to put the Explorers right back in it.

After trading leads in the third, a 4-0 run to start the fourth quarter gave UMass some breathing room. The Minutewomen extended their lead to nine, and this time, La Salle was unable to come back.

“I think a lot of it goes to the fact that we’re in the tournament, it’s a little different than playing a regular-season game,” said Makayla Miller, a grad transfer from Ouachita Baptist in Arkansas. “Players got a little tight towards the end, scared to take shots we usually were taking; [we] weren’t being as aggressive.”

In a patchwork of new faces this season for La Salle, Masciantonio had been the one constant.

The graduate student guard, the only player on the floor for La Salle with previous A-10 Tournament experience, has been a core member of the Explorers for five years. Wednesday marked her final game in a La Salle uniform, closing her career with 10 points, three assists, and four steals.

“[Masciantonio and Miller] are [our] two veteran senior point guards. I can’t say enough, how important that it was to have them with us. Molly’s been here five years, I’ve been here six,” MacGillivray said. “So we’ve been riding together. And she’s been through a lot while she was here.”

Masciantonio provided a steadying presence. Last season, the guard led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. Returning for one final season that MacGillivray said she knew ahead of time would be focused on developing younger players, Masciantonio still finished third in the conference (2.1) in that category.

“One thing I learned from Molly was how to be a teammate and stay positive,” Melious said. “Even through all the negatives, Molly was always uplifting us, and I feel like getting her energy in, helped us stay positive throughout all our losses.”